Spring, winter, morning
by puretype
Summary: When Pearl was asleep it was as if somebody had put the world into slow motion. When Little miss was asleep, it was almost as if the world stopped entirely. Pearl, Platina, Dia.


_note_. takes place during chapter 363. I'm not particularly happy with this ficlet, I am kinda under a huge writer's block, but I liked the idea and it had to be written :I also lol warning for sudden pov-shift, idek. pls crit.

**Spring, winter, morning**.

She fell asleep quickly. Really quickly. _She's just tired_, Dia had said while carefully and delicately zipping up a bedroll around her, like a coroner with a body bag. _It's too late to go back to the city_, Dia had said while looking over his shoulder to where the sun was setting behind mountains. _I don't want to wake her_ went unsaid, but both of them understood it too clearly anyways.

Pearl reflected for a moment on the Grand lake resort - even with her penchant for expensive hotels, he thought that she had sounded especially excited to go there. There was no helping it now, though. Sorry, he thought ruefully while dragging Dia's attackers to a farther clearing, where they wouldn't disturb Little miss. Dr. Footstep had generously volunteered to keep watch over them until morning... _but backup would be nice too_ he had added, stealing hopeful glances towards Chimhiko, and Pearl just sighed. But he reluctantly gave up the infernape for further security, then, on second thought, Chahiko too. Just in case something happened and they needed to give an alarm for backup.

He gave his old friend a brief pat on the head -_ protect them, tell me if there's any trouble_ - before Chahiko fluttered up to perch on a nearby branch, puffing out his ruff of feathers and repeating, uncannily: _protect! protect! trouble, trouble!_ and Pearl had to shush and quiet him down before the call could wake Little miss. He left feeling more than slightly unnerved, wondering if this was really all he could do.

He returned to a silent beach and the magnificent play of the sun's waning rays on the lake's surface. Dia was watching the evening light sparking on the crests of waves. He was sitting by Little miss' right side.

Pearl took her left.

His friend gave him a sideward glance, as if wondering if he wanted to practice their routine. Why not? Pearl thought, but stopped when Little miss made a soft sound and leaned against his shoulder, resting her cheek against the leather strap of his messenger bag, exhaling slowly. So that was that. He quirked an eyebrow at Dia -_ what can we do _- and there was a strange look on the other boy's face, one that Pearl had never seen before and couldn't recognize, one that he wasn't sure if he liked.

They went to bed early that night. Pearl couldn't use his sleeping bag in case he roused Little miss, so Dia gave him their thickest blanket before wrapping himself in his own sleeping bag and settling gingerly down next to the girl and resuming his vigil of Lake valor's moonlit waters. It wasn't as if it was needed. Wig and Empoleon were standing guard, while Ponyta curled up in front of the three travelers as a sort of campfire, keeping the night's chill at bay and casting flickering shadows on his trainer's face, alternately bathing Little miss in a warm glow - like honey, like the sun - and drowning her in the cold of darkness, like the caves of mountains.

It occured to Dia that he had never quite seen Little miss asleep before. She'd always kept separate rooms from him and Pearl, and Dia was always the last to get up in the morning, anyway. He'd seen Pearl sleeping before, though, and not only from the incident at Oreburgh. They'd been together since they were kids, after all. Things were simpler then. Pearl hadn't always been so impatient. They had all the time in the world to camp out in the wilderness, climb hills and trees, pick berries and stuff themselves on the spot, collapse and nap right on top of each other when they were too exhausted to move. When Pearl was asleep it was as if somebody had put the world into slow motion. Dia could live with that.

When Little miss was asleep, it was almost as if the world stopped entirely. Moonlight wavered off of water and firelight flashed upon the girl's aristocratic features, but there was a certain timelessness to everything. It was unreal to see that Little miss was not smiling uncertainly in the distance or regarding commoner attractions with zealous interest or even, in those precious rare instances, laughing behind cupped hands... and immediately denying it. She was just sleeping. Her aloof reserve gone, all defenses lowered, as vulnerable as she would ever allow herself to appear, and Dia knew that even if he hadn't heard Paka and Uji's last request he would do absolutely anything in his power to protect her.

He hesitantly rested his own head against her shoulder, her scarf immeasurably soft on his cheek. It was probably the closest he could ever get to her. She wouldn't allow a commoner to touch her if she was awake, would she? She couldn't even trust him with her name.

But maybe this much was enough for now.


End file.
